Chinese language immersion kindergarteners Matthew Sullivan, left, and Robert Sawyer, right, each turned to look for approval from their two teachers after they pointed to the same Mandarin Chinese character during a word memory studies session Friday, January 30, 2015 at Raleigh’s Stough Elementary School. Stough has Wake County’s first Mandarin Chinese language immersion program with at least 15 kindergarteners in the first class.HARRY LYNCH — hlynch@newsobserver.com |Buy Photo

The Wake County school system is accepting magnet applications through Thursday. For details, go to wcpss.net.

RALEIGH — Kindergartner Ava Fletcher has been learning Mandarin for just a few months in her classroom at Stough Elementary School. But already she can write her name in Chinese characters, sing songs such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and chatter confidently in Mandarin about the books she loves and the friends she plays with.

“I like that I get to learn and that I get to sing,” said Ava, 6, of her class.

Eighteen students are enrolled in the Mandarin immersion program at Stough Elementary on Edwards Mill Road in Raleigh. The program began this year with students from the school’s neighborhood attendance area and will become a magnet next year, so students from across the county can apply to attend.

The magnet application period for Wake County schools runs through Thursday.

At Stough, kindergartners spend almost all of their day learning in Mandarin. The class has one English literacy class each day and also takes specials such as physical education and art in English.